‘The Last Exorcism’ Ending Explained

Published 4 years ago
by
Vic Holtreman
, Updated September 3rd, 2010 at 9:09 am,

While we do have a The Last Exorcism review where you can leave comments, we’ve set up this as a place where you can discuss the Last Exorcism ending and movie spoilers without concerns about ruining the movie for folks who haven’t seen it yet.

If you’re posting comments here, assume that anyone in the conversation has seen the movie – if you haven’t seen the movie, I would recommend you don’t read the comments here until you have.

So… the Last Exorcism ending that most everyone who reviews the movie is talking about – how DOES it end?

As mentioned in my review, what the filmmakers attempted to do was to NOT give the audience a definitive answer throughout the movie to the question of whether Nell was actually possessed or going through some severe psychological trauma. That “not knowing” kept the movie interesting – and watching the pseudo-exorcist preacher (named Cotton) start out thinking this was just a case of a mental problem but start to doubt himself as the film went on takes the audience along the same thought process.

At one point during the film we learn that Nell’s father had a falling out with the local town pastor, and that’s why he stopped taking his family to church (he’s also home schooling 15 year old Nell and her teenage brother). Cotton talks to the preacher, who says that it got pretty ugly between him and Nell’s father and that while he knows an excellent pyschologist, he doesn’t believe the father will listen to him.

Cotton talks them both into speaking with each other, and goes back to the house in the woods to perform (supposedly for real this team) another exorcism with the local preacher and his secretary present. Cotton leaves, thinking everything is finally settled, but it’s at this point he and the camera crew discover the boy they thought impregnated Nell is gay.

So at this point, within the last 10 minutes of the film, we’re fairly convinced that her problem stems from a combination of her mother’s recent death and the fact that she was recently raped but has suppressed any memory of it. At first Cotton believes Nell’s father raped her, and then the suspicion falls on the young man in town, but he’s not the guy. Cotton and crew turn around and head back to the house.

When they arrive they find satanic symbols painted all over the walls of the house and no one home – they head out in the dark towards a distant light and they can hear screaming in the distance. When they get there, they come upon what looks like a satanic ritual with a ton of people from town, Nell on her back apparently giving birth to a creature that is not altogether human (she didn’t look the least bit pregnant). It’s revealed that the leader of this occult group and the man who impregnated Nell is, you guessed it, the local town pastor.

The newborn creature is thrown screaming into the fire, which blazes into a huge fireball when this happens – Cotton, seeing all this, seems to try with all his might to regain his faith in God, raises a cross and heads towards the melee. The cameraman and the woman doing the interviewing for the documentary run off terrified into the woods – she is struck down and presumably killed and the cameraman keeps running. Eventually he is cut off by Nell’s brother who decapitates the cameraman, the camera falls to the ground, and the screen goes black.

Thank you for that last comment, brilliant. Just saw the 2nd one, pretty entertaining but a lot more questions. So the scene with her dad, did that really happen? Why was the room empty, why no body? And what was the deal with licking the blonde chick at the end? The demon was into her? haha, as someone else said, love her choosing life over death. would have pissed me off otherwise. Well I’ll read everyones new comments in a few years when the final chapter of this s*** show comes out.

I think she was definitely possessed, the drawing she did on the wall explained the deaths of cotton (going into the fire in the first image, then dying in the flames the next) and the woman (cut up into pieces), and finally the camera man who gets his head cut off by caleb at the end. That’s why I thought the ending was more resolved than most think, Nell explained all the deaths in her drawings.

I think she was definitely possessed. one point that my friend pointed out,the drawing she did on the wall explained the deaths of cotton (going into the fire in the first image, then dying in the flames the next) and the woman (cut up into pieces), and finally the camera man (who gets his head cut off by caleb) at the end. That’s why I thought the ending was more resolved than most think, Nell explained all the deaths in her drawings.

Yes, the drawings kinda prove that nell has actually been possesed. But I am still confused in part when they do the second exorcism that cotton is sure she is not possesed but mentally traumatized. And who actually makes her pregnant?

Okay. She was posssed by Abalam, not Satan, or the devil. It states that clearly in the film. SHE IS POSSESSED, and continues to be. The preacher hosted parties for his sunday school students at his own home that Nell used to attend – she was impreganted there by either the Rev Manely, or another of his cult congregation. The reason she doesn’t look preggo throughout is because of the possesion – and the doctors did realize she wa pregantant when the rests of her tests came back in – her father yanked her out of the hospital before actually hearing anything from a doctor. The brother is part of the cult – that was CLEAR from the first time you meet him – when he tells them to turn around and go back to where they came from – then pointed out even clearer when Caleb gets slashed by his sister, and he writes the note “Don’t leave her alone with him” because..Caleb needs her ALIVE to continue the Cults work of getting a host body to Abalam (So becomming absloutely ONE with NELL)- though its stated she HE CAN NOT DO THIS unless she ‘willingly accepts him’ because of the prophecy (You can get this all from the first viewing of the first film, and it also just pounds all the same facts back at you in the sequel when she does join with Abalam at the end, willingly and she drives off listening to some weak rock music, and everything starts lighting on fire was she goes – Very anti climatic like the first (and a total Carrie rip off)

I genuinely thought it was just teenage psychological issues over her mother dying, her father being a drunk and over protective and the rape that she suppressed. Infact I thought it would have made a better movie without forcing the demonic possession ritual at the end. Personally I am a Christian and I do believe in that kind of stuff with demons but I think they have been over dramatised in this movie in particular to the point where it’s not realistic. I didn’t really understand the ending, but that might be because of my age(15). I thought her dad rapped her at first then I suspected the brother, in fact I think that is the most likely explanation. I think that the guy Logan was in on the cult, gay or not. Also yes, Nells pictures explained the deaths of the camera crew and Cotton but that doesn’t mean she was possessed, has no one ever had that sense of déjà vu before where you feel like you’ve been their before like maybe in a dream?
I don’t know, maybe this is just a film where everyone’s just going to have to agree to disagree…

The preacher made up that Nell was possessed by abalam to the dad so that he could go on with an exorcism to get paid. Clearly. If you actually payed attention the preacher was trying to explain to the dad what the Latin writings meant because the father couldn’t read Latin. And the preacher barely understood it either so he made up a b******* explanation of who and how she is “possessed”. It rigged the exorcism and only had the dad convinced. obviously you should know this if you watched the movie. And had nell believing it too. All in all the point i want to make is that it was phsycological issues. She was messed up in the head from being raped and her mom dying and her dad being an abusive drunk. They put s*** in her head to think she was possessed and that’s how we get the movie.